Nature Walk in Stanley Park!

The Vancouver Hipster epidemic is getting worse

So it seems there's going to be a 'reality' tv show about hipsters. To show the REAL LIVES of the STRUGGLING ARTISTS in Vancouver. LOLOLOLOL.

Photodump vol. 2

I've mostly been looking for full time work for the past few weeks as what I have right now is ridiculously part time. But who wants to read about that?! Instead, here is a collection of photo that I've taken around Vancouver since I got back after Christmas.

As seen in Irish pub

Digital film festival. I only ended up seeing Goodfellas

Chocolate fondue from a place up the road. Far from it I was raised.

I walked on this and on leg went through the ice. Seriously.

A cultural melting pot.

Family Guy Engrish

Vinyl is everywhere. It's like hipster heroin.

This was in the bathroom in a house party. I never got around to asking about it.

Subconsciously preparing for St Patrick's Day

Like many things, this would never fly back home.

Not a crime scene, but a scene from a tv programme.

Not sure why this is sideways but the young man is using a plug in telephone receiver for his smart phone. Bloody hipsters.

Mount Seymour Snow Tube Park

One of the best things about Vancouver is that you can decide to do something completely new in the morning, be there my midday, do it and be home for dinner/work/whatever in the evening. Case in point, we went to Mount Seymour the other morning to try out the Snow Tube Park.

Snow Tubes are essentially inflatable tyres that you use to propel yourself headfirst down the side of a snowy mountain. We were initially a bit nervous about the whole thing, but once we saw schoolkids racing down and yelling YOLO ('You Only Live Once' for those of you over the age of 30) we were shamed into having a go.

There were 4 tracks to take, each with charming names like Tear Jerker and Kamikaze. We started with the slowest one, which looks a bit like this:

While it doesn't look particularly fast, it does feel it, especially the first couple of times until you get used to it. You then sit on your tube and get gently pulled up the slope on a conveyer belt. Emboldened by the vaguely taunting shouts of fun from the schoolkids, I ventured onto Kamikaze and brought my camera with me. Apologies for not hitting stop in time...

There's loads more to do up on the mountain like hiking, skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing and just general sightseeing. It takes about an hour from where we are in Vancouver, but that includes waiting around for buses. From what we're seeing every little snow village has it's own unique, quirky charm and it's easy to feel like you're getting away when it's actually 'just up the mountains'.

Hidden Stanley Park: Beaver Lake

So, instead of going on about how we were stopped at US border patrol when trying to get to our connecting flight back to Canada, having to run a la Home Alone 2 through the airport to catch the flight, herself being sick for a week after we got back and me looking for work, I'm going to talk some more about Stanley Park!

I have waxed lyrical (or at least shown lots of photos) about it already but we are still getting our heads around the sheer size of the place. With a 7 mile seawall/prom/walking or cycle path around the outside of the park, it is easy not to stray into the interior of the park. However, during one particularly adventurous cycle, I went 'off road' under a bridge and down the less beaten path. EXTREEEME. This was more like cycling around the back roads at home, ducking under branches, squeezing through gaps, traversing narrow natural bridges and no smooth tarmac here! Despite not having a notion where I was heading I managed to stumble across a forest lake.

What's great about this is that it's one of the few areas in Stanley Park that is completely cut off from civilisation. You are surrounded by forestry and cannot see the high rise buildings. There are also less people around so it is more peaceful than the busy seawall loop. Luckily it has been sunny here the last couple of days so when herself got a day off we took to our bikes (well, she rented hers) and made our way into the (sort of ) wilderness. Apologies to those who want more photos, I was to busy trying not to fall off my bike.

Getting stuff for free: not just for Australians or tv characters

We now know 3 other Irish couples.. (Bear with me here) one have recently moved over and rented an unfurnished apartment. Another couple (who have been here for a year) told them to check by the dumpsters/street at the end of the month for furniture left by people who are moving. They are now proud owners of a small table and two chairs, patio furniture, a tv cabinet and coffee tables. (They bought a bed themselves..$400, but a wise move).  And whadya know, our dumpster/recycling area is within the building and is a full of freebies. (Clean stuff, and it's not stealing, don't worry mam.) So far we've swagged

A DVD player (with Home Alone 2)

This shelfing unit and funky bedside light

We've been looking on craigslist for a narrow bedside unit, bedside light and a new tv. 2/3 for free ain't bad!

It's our first day off in a while tomorrow so we're going to catch up on shopping/housework and then go to the outdoor swimming pool. I'm pretty wrecked between work and trying to still have a social life. The new Irish couple we've met have an amazing view over the harbour so we watched the fireworks from their balcony the other night. It's a bit of a heatwave at the minute, even warmer than when we first got here. 33 degrees today I think. 

Busy Bees

It's been over a month since we got here...

So quite a bit has changed in the last while. I've sorted out my job situation since my last post. Things didn't look very promising at the start and it seemed like the 'oh, and we'll need you to work on the floor etc a small amount of the time' part of the job was going to be nearly all of the job. Thankfully after a brief chat with the boss I've returned to doing mostly online/marketing/social media work, or in other words, what the job advertisement asked for.

We've moved into our new apartment which is just around the corner from Stanley Park and English Bay.

Stanley Park Seawall - A warmer, bigger version of the Salthill Prom, with a national park attached to it

English Bay - A warmer version of any Irish beach ever

It really is a working holiday right now in every sense of, eh, both words. I have to do an extra bit of travel to get to work now and some of the sights on the way are less than desirable but on the way home it has been sunny each time and it's hard to believe I'm actually living here at times, it feels like I'm just passing through on a brief holiday.

Instead of jogging along a freezing Salthill prom or in the gym in the Cloonfad Scenic Walks, I now jog around the seawall in Stanley Park. I'm trying to enjoy being outside as much as I can because come September the weather is meant to turn for the worst and this might limit us, but we'll see.

There are still occasional bouts of homesickness and lonliness but for the most part we've been too busy lately. It's coming up to 10.30 pm and I'm pretty happy to go to bed soon! There are lots of things and people I miss, but we're trying to seize this adventure while we can. (Did I just type that? I must be getting tired).

The Canadian people are polite to the point of boring at times. We miss the Irish sense of humour (making fun of yourself, your peers and everyone around you) but when thousands of people can gather for the outdoor cinema without any trouble  it makes you think about the gobshitery that goes on at home at outdoor social events! 200,000 people are on the streets every few nights this week for a fireworks festival. We've heard of trouble at previous events but have yet to see anything more dangerous than a woman cycling against the tide of people. And she was soon stopped by police..politely..

So, here's to enjoying this and trying not to let Irish pessimism (sure there'll be no work after a while and it'll be lashing rain, like) seep in.

Do you guys like sportz?

#Day 10

Having settled into our apartment I'm now fully immersing myself in this North American culture by sitting on the couch in the evenings and watching SPORTZ. Ok, I've done it twice so far but it makes me feel like a real man. All I have to do is get some of the tiny cans of beer they have here and I'm set.

Baseball seems to be on a lot. It really is just rounders for grown ups and tbh it's a bit drawn out between all the innings and the ads (THE SUPER SLO MO IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY MCDONALD'S. MCDONALD'S, EAT SOME MCDONALD'S). The best thing to do is to watch the highlights.

More fun though is the American football. (Canadian football?) The local team, the BC Lions are pretty good.

OOF.

On Friday we're going to an alleged Irish bar called Ceilis, which is also supposedly the home of the Lions, to watch a 'game' so it should be a interesting coming together of sport, alcohol, locals and Irish. The stadium is right down the 'street' from the bar (and a few 'blocks' from our apartment) so we'll see what happens.

Equally close to our apartment (because it's the same stadium) is the home of the local soccerball team, the Vancouver Whitecaps.

We're actually planning to go to a match this month as part of a group outing with USIT/SWAP. The team have a pretty good chance of making the playoffs (lol). Will they be of the same quality as Glenn Whelan and John O'Shea...? Only time will tell.

I'm told there's another game called 'hockey' as well, but I'll have to look into that.

Achievement unlocked: Tenant

Day #6 (I think..)

We finally have a place to live! After some initial potential sketchyness involving being asked to get into a car and go into an underground car park, which we flat out refused to do, we met the lovely Alan who actually wasn't a serial killer. He sorted us out after we called him about a different property in North Vancouver and showed us a ridiculous apartment that is available for a month and includes:

• FURNITURE! Actual furniture like a bed, table and chairs etc
• A huge pool and jacuzzi in the building
• A gym in the building
• Huge window view of the area around the waterfront
• An Irish sports/bar and grill across the road
• Huge TV and internet

The rent is a few hundred $$$ more than we wanted to pay but we did haggle down a little and all bills are included. Most properties come on the market in August so we've bought ourselves some time.

In other news we paid our first trip to Walmart. It may be evil but when you're on a budget like we are it's pretty much the holy grail. Think Tesco with Penneys and TK Maxx stuck onto it.

You want house? You pay big bucks! You no have furniture!

#Day 5

The apartment search drags on! We are reconsidering our original budget, having already reconsidered where we want to live... There are places to rent but they are dayum expensive and come with nothing. Essentially an expensive, impractical warehouse. When you do find somewhere on craigslist that seems promising you eventually get something like this:

'Thanks for your interest in my property. I am looking for a responsible & clean tenant that will be able to take good care of my apartment because I'm not given my apartment for rent just because of money but due to my transfer to Washington DC, USA. I'm an Overhauling manager, but have just been transferred to ****** plc in DC, you can view our site at ******* I left country with hope that I will be coming back in a month's time,but right now the company have ask me to stay for 2yrs under contract with them that why I have made up my mind to put up my apartment for rent I also have another property in Germany but the government took over the whole territory. 

I spent a lot on my property that I want to give you for rent and I want to use the rent fee for my Daughter pocket money fee,She is studying in England UK and I would want you to treat it as your own and I would like you to keep it tidy all the time also want you to let me have trust in you, the rental fee $850 per month has including utilities for the whole of the apartment. Please let know if you can take good care of the place very well? Hope you have a nice day and you will need to provide the below information;'

 

They then cunningly ask you to fill out an 'application form' to make it look SUPER PROFESSIONAL.

 

Aparantly Vancouver has lots of homeless people in the winter. Well, there's quite a few in the summer also. They're not the shaking, harsh-voiced messes that occupy the streets in Dublin, but generally polite poeple. There's also a load of street punx who probably live at home but sometimes sit outside and sing/shout about wanting change for beer. One of them looks like Seth Rogen.

And to finish on a light hearted note, we did manage to get bank accounts set up (though getting money into them is a different story) and a brief sniff through the job section online seemed promising.

OHHHHH! Canada!

Day #2

So after years of wanting to travel to North America, weeks of deciding where, months of waiting on a visa and 15 hours of travelling (back in time) my self and my one in particular are in Rain City, ie Vancouver in Canada. We've been wandering around stumbling over our jaws and have even managed to make two friends who we may never see again once we all find accommodation but hey. 

There's a boat aboot

As if to mock our desperate need for a shower, the sun was splitting the mooseses upon arrival and it's been toasty today as well. We've doggedly stuck to travelling in a straight line along the main street so as not to get lost, but have also taken an actual bus to an actual tourist destination, the simply ridiculous Stanley Park.

Things we've learned so far:

• Staff everywhere are SUPER friendly. 'Hi guys, how was your day, what are you doing tonight??!?!' This is not ideal after 15 hours travelling and not being able to tell which direction is blue. Though it's nice when you get used to it and on the rare occasions that they are clearly genuine.
• People in hostels are friendly and even having a day extra of experience can make you seem like a guru.
• You shouldn't buy food in an all natural and organic food market if you are trying to save money.
• The toilets flush in an unusual manner.
• Seeing skyscrapers on one side and snow-topped mountains on the other, all while it's sunny is a bit strange.
• There is no escaping Coronation Street.